


Orphan Shadows

by PaxCallow



Category: Original Work
Genre: Diary/Journal, Friendship, Gen, LGBT characters, Mystery, Original Fiction, Other, Slice of Life, Urban Fantasy, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24041851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaxCallow/pseuds/PaxCallow
Summary: Muzz Allium moves across the country to Castwell in an effort to find somewhere strange enough for her and discovers more strangeness than she even expected.[ ON HIATUS UNTIL I GET MY CRAP TOGETHER AND FINISH MY PROJECTS MORE ]
Comments: 8
Kudos: 3





	1. The Train Ride

> May 1st
> 
> Dear Buddy,
> 
> Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god. Hashtag oh god.
> 
> We’re on the train right now. Disclaimer my handwriting isn’t this shaky because I’m afraid it’s because the train car is vibrating and it’s making it hard to write and also because I’m TERRIBLY AFRAID!

Trees and cornfields flew by as the train sped through the countryside under the clear blue sky. The train car was sparsely populated and quiet. Not many people would have much reason to take the train to Castwell even on their weirdest day. There’s a high probability everyone person reading a book or grading papers or browsing questionable websites on their laptop in this car was pretty damn strange.

Some of them were more comfortable with that than others.

> I can’t believe we’re doing this. Oh GOD. Why did you let me do this, Buddy? This was always just supposed to be a wild fantasy. You know! For the hard nights! We’d never actually do it, right? That’d be crazy, right? And we’re not crazy, Buddy, right? I have no money. I have no plan. I only managed to work out a place to live THIS morning on the day we are CURRENTLY experiencing. Somehow, I’m going to get in so much trouble. I must be crazy.
> 
> That must be why I’m moving to Castwell.

Muzz Allium sat alone in a booth, writing in a plain journal, nearly folded up in her seat in an effort to steady the aforementioned shaking as best she could.

That, and in a subconscious, reflexive effort to conceal the shadow sitting in her lap right now.

It was near-featureless and vaguely lizard-shaped, about the length of Muzz’s forearm. It sat curled up, nearly squished beneath her journal but resting silently nonetheless, its round white eyes staring blankly ahead. It was trying to keep itself calm like this about as much as Muzz was trying to keep herself calm with her writing. But it was all really the same effort.

Muzz was a dark manipulator. The shadow was her shadow. Go figure.

The shadows of dark manipulators are as much “them” as their flesh and blood and brains, but humans tend to name everything they see, and Muzz named hers Buddy a good ten years ago.

The train passed into a thick pine forest.

Muzz’s eyes flickered to the other passengers for the thirteenth time in a minute. Two of them also had shadows, and one of them- a bright manipulator wearing huge reflective sunglasses- even had her glint out. None of them were hiding them. None of them even looked nervous- not to Muzz, at least. And it was irrational, but this didn’t do much to soothe her.

She snorted to herself.

> Come on, what’s wrong with me? We’re moving to Castwell! I shouldn’t be anxious, I should be excited! Happy! This is where we begin! All we needed to solve our life was a place like Castwell and that’s where we’re going! If we’re lucky, we’ll never have to see New Wen again. You’ll finally get to grow.
> 
> I’ll finally

Her shaking pencil paused over the page for a good ten seconds. The words tumbling out of her mind came to a halt. She swallowed hard, brow furrowed, trying to continue. But suddenly, nothing was coming out anymore.

She stared down at the page like that until her eyes unfocused, and the only thing that snapped her out of it was Buddy nervously chewing on the fabric of her pants. Blinking, shaking her head, Muzz shut her journal and slipped it back into her bag. That was enough for now.

Her hand hovered over Buddy’s tense black form and she briefly thought about stroking it, to soothe it, but she didn’t want to draw attention to it- not even here. It’d be simple to just take it back in, but that would only double the anxiety she was feeling right now, and right now, she was pretty sure that would add up to an attack.

Instead of either of those things, she just whispered, barely audible, “It’s alright, Buddy. We’re almost there.”

Our train finally cleared the pines in a flash of brilliant daylight.

Muzz leaned against the window to see what was up ahead and her heart skipped a beat. The mountain that’d been peeking over the hills and forests repeatedly as the train winded its way through the countryside was suddenly in full view.

And there at its foot, past farmland, gas stations, and pylons, sat a small city. It was cocooned in morning fog, but unmistakable. You’d be able to tell from the giant frog statue that rose above half the buildings that you were in the right place.

Other than that, it looked quiet. Almost idyllic, as much as any city can be. It was hugged on one side by a thick forest that crawled up the mountain behind, and on the other by a small lake, with meadows and tall grasses all around the circumference. There weren’t flashing lights or smog and as the train drew closer and closer, the city didn’t sound any louder.

Yes, if you were riding this train, you’d think it looked pretty peaceful.

But you probably know that even by the smallest amount, that’s never entirely the case.

A big old green sign came up ahead, and the train sped by in just enough time for Muzz and the two other passengers on the left side of the car to make out its simple slogan.

_Castwell County_

_A rich history and a bright future._

“We’re almost there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh. welcome to orphan shadows. this is an experimental slice of life project and also an attempt to worldbuild a universe i've been keeping secret. this kinda came out of nowhere! i will be totally honest and say that i am not entirely sure what i'm going to do with this. i haven't written fiction in this way since i was probably ten. but the urge struck and... life is too short to not spontaneously start projects without really knowing where they're going. 
> 
> this should be fun!


	2. Vivi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the theme of the chapter is Mystery - Boxed In.

> be in Castwell.

After much deliberation, Muzz finished her sentence and shut her journal again, sitting on a bench outside Castwell City Train Station. Buddy lied in her messenger bag and Muzz placed the journal down on top of it. It didn’t mind. Shadows don’t mind anything their humans don’t.

She’d been sitting on this bench in the shade of a black sunhat for a few minutes and hadn’t even begun to think of what she’d do next. She was- incredibly- hardcore putting it off. This is what you do when you’re a brand new transplant with no prospects, no familiarity with your surroundings, and no friends.

Well…

No friends yet.

“ _Yoo-hoo!_ ”

She blinked, straightening up, as a call rung out in her direction. She knew it was her direction because when she looked up, there was a blonde, brightly dressed woman running directly toward her with a big smile on her face. But not just any blonde woman. Muzz could tell right away that this was the bright manipulator that she’d repeatedly glanced at on the train.

She could tell on account of not just the mirrored sunglasses on her face, but by the glint perched on her shoulder. It was pure white with black eyes like any other glint, but its highly detailed silhouette was in the shape of a giant cockatoo; a regal crown of feathers on its head and a long tail.

Muzz swallowed hard. What could she want? Should she stand up to greet her, she wondered?, albeit more frantically. In New Wen she focused so hard on not standing out that she didn’t have to deal with it a lot. Her mind performed thousands of equations trying to work it out.

But she wouldn’t have to worry in the end, because as the woman came to a stop before her, she didn’t introduce herself or ask to shake Muzz’s hand or ask for change for a dollar, all things you might expect from such an encounter.

She took her phone out of her pink purse and started texting.

As she did, she held up a finger and muttered, “Just… a… sec…”

Muzz gaped. Did that really just happen? Who in the world would flag someone down, only to text in their face and make them wait on her?

The answer is this girl would. And she did.

With a flourish, she finished texting and dropped her phone back in her purse, redirecting her big smile back on Muzz.

“Hey. I’m Vivi.”

Muzz blinked. “… Hi, Vivi. I’m Muzz.”

She shifted her weight from one hip to the other. “So, you’re probably new in town, right?”

Trying to figure out where this was going, Muzz nodded. “Uh, yeah, actually! Brand new. I just got off the train. Actually, I saw you on the—”

“I knew it.” Vivi snapped her fingers, interrupting her. “I could tell from how you hold your shadow.”

Muzz flinched. She wasn’t used to people pointing out Buddy. She’d spent so many years doing her best to hide that it existed at all. But she was going to have to start getting used to it.

“Oh. H-haha! That obvious, huh…?”

“Yeah. But don’t feel bad. This is like, statistically the population with the highest percentage of people who can even see a darkmanip’s shadow in the country.”

And then she fell silent, relaxing with her hands on her hips, but still looking expectantly down at Muzz, who swallowed hard. The pressure was on. Behind them, a train blew its whistle and began pulling out of the station.

“Um.” She glanced down at Buddy poking its confused head out of her bag and then up at the cockatoo-shaped glint sitting on Vivi’s shoulder. She’d never seen anyone else’s shadow or glint for this long before, and never up this close. It’d been staring down at her the whole time, emotionless. Though shadows and glints typically are.

“Your glint is very pretty.”

Vivi regarded it briefly. “Heh. Yeah. I call it Mimi. So, why did you move to Castwell, Muzz?”

Muzz’s jaw almost dropped again. Vivi would not even _allow_ talk that small. She was feeling very interrogated right now, and she would be right to. And she would feel very uncomfortable to comment on the move she’d taken this very same day. Muzz Allium left a lot in New Wen. One of the things she couldn’t take away was the fact that she’d ever been there at all.

“I… I just wanted to get away, and I had an opportunity,” she laughed nervously, shrugging, and heavily diluting the truth. “This seemed about as good a place as any!”

Stretching, Vivi sat down on the bench beside her, but graciously left a good distance between them. Mimi flapped its wings and preened itself.

“Well, you picked a good place to get away to. This city is like, awesome. … Especially for a darkmanip.” Her head rolled to the side and she flashed a big, lazy grin at Muzz. “Hey, if you need transplant advice, I’m your gal. I know Castwell like the inside of my purse.”

Muzz put her hands up, scooching away from Vivi a bit.

“Oh, th-thanks! But. Right now I just, uh…”

Wanted to get to her new home and take a big ol’ nap. That’s what she was thinking, but as she thought that, she realized that despite everything, there actually _was_ some transplant advice Vivi could give her.

“Actually…” She rummaged around in her bag. There was a stained napkin inside with an address she’d frantically scribbled down this morning, and she took it out. “Do you think you could give me directions?”

“Deffos! Where to?”

“I have to get to… 333 Darner Lane.”

Vivi leaned in close to squint at the napkin over Muzz’s shoulder.

“333 Darner Lane,” she repeated quietly, but in the next instant she perked up. “Oh! I know where that is!”

She leapt up off the bench, Mimi soaring around to perch on her head, and twirled to face Muzz.

“Let’s go there now!”

It took Muzz’s tired mind a few seconds of spinning its wheels to process that. As Vivi sauntered off toward the street, Muzz stood up in alarm. When she asked for directions this is not what she was thinking.

“U-um! ‘L… _let’s?_ ’”

> … So! Today was an interesting day!
> 
> When the train rolled in, I completely lost the plot. I knew I was supposed to find our new place, but I couldn’t connect that command to any actual action. The choices I made this morning were the most bat guano choices I have ever made in my life, and when I got off that train, I was paralyzed! Who! Would! Have! Thunk!
> 
> Thank god for that brightmanip girl Vivi. I know, I can’t even believe I’m saying that. I didn’t hate Vivi at all, not even at the start, but for a while there, I was almost certain she was going to try to harvest my organs or something. I worry about that a lot. That’s one of my biggest fears, Buddy.
> 
> But I don’t think that’s the case. I think… Vivi might just be a very… very friendly person. Very, very, very friendly.
> 
> On our way across town, after I took you back in, she was- somehow while texting half the time- pointing things out to me. This really is a strange town.
> 
> There’s a stream running through several streets here with clearer water than I ever saw back in New Wen. Vivi says they think filth spirits keep it clean by eating all the trash and pollution. If that’s true, I wish everywhere had that many filth spirits. But it’s still so completely wack to me that mentioning spirits so casually isn’t VERY TABOO here. We were walking by people all the time, but Vivi was never once clandestine about what she said.
> 
> Also, that giant frog statue downtown. There’s an actual real reason for its existence. Apparently some people worship it, according to Vivi. We can’t see it from here, but it’s always surrounded by offerings. I asked her why it had to be so the damn big- except I DIDN’T curse- and she just said the frog was here first. Okay!
> 
> We also past a frozen yogurt shop, a donut shop, and a smoothie shop all on our route to the place. Vivi asked me if I wanted to check out each one. I declined- I’m a bit cash light ATM, if you’ll recall. I haven’t eaten yet today, but I declined to tell her that too. I just met Vivi, but even though she’s probably not an organ harvester, I feel like if I told her she might throw me through the shop door by force, shattering glass everywhere, destroying my human body, and demand I eat a croissant or something! Which sounds like a hecking good time, but not today.
> 
> I felt my anxiety slowly shrinking as we walked together, even with you taken in. I can’t believe it, but Vivi is actually alright, and I was actually having fun with her. What a relief, right?? My first day in Castwell and the world didn’t fall apart around me! Fingers crossed on the rest of the days!
> 
> So yeah, it was nice.
> 
> … But…
> 
> There was just one thing.

“Look, see it? That must be it!”

“Uh, y-yeah, yeah! 333, that’s the one. Huh.”

After a long, more-winding-than-necessary walk, Muzz and Vivi approached 333 Darner Lane. It was modest- small. One story with a flat roof and a backyard full of thick weeds. A moss-covered spirit sat snoozing on the roof. The vinyl siding had seen better days, but the house had a strong foundation. Apart from being abandoned and overgrown with weeds, it looked like a nice place for a person to live.

Muzz thought so, too. Unfortunately, Muzz had been hit with another wave of shock in that moment as she stood in the driveway and took in the building before her.

“That is my house,” she said, stilted. “And I am going to live there.”

Vivi didn’t pick up on the agitation radiating off Muzz right now. Or else, she did, and was choosing to ignore it. Both are equally likely. “It’s not a bad place to call home. This is, like, a really nice part of town.”

It was true, for whatever it’s worth. Darner Lane was short and quiet. There were no sidewalks this close to the edge of the city and this close to the mountain, and the entire street was covered in shade by a thick canopy of trees.

Muzz chuckled quietly, snapping out of it. She turned to Vivi with a smile. “Thank you, Vivi. Uh, for. Showing me the way. That is. You really didn’t need to do all this.”

“I know!” Vivi shrugged. “I guess I’m just super nice.”

Somehow, she was able to say this and not sound deeply conceited. She glanced down at her phone, tapping away a few times, and went on, “I should head out. I have _sooo_ much to do. But… before I go…”

For the first time Muzz had seen, she lifted her sunglasses up off her eyes, setting them on her forehead. Her saturated red eyes sparkled in the way only a brightmanip’s did as she looked Muzz over, pleased, and Muzz in return got an immediate, sick feeling in her stomach.

It was an instinct she learned quickly. She was ignoring it and enjoying herself, but there was a vibe she was getting from Vivi this entire time that she was only waiting to confirm- even _beyond_ the organ harvester theory- and she was fairly certain she knew the next thing Vivi would say.

Not this, she was thinking. Not this. It had been going so well. Not this.

But it was.

“Well, you were really fun to hang out with today, and I think you’re pretty cute. So… you think I could get your number?”

This was exactly what Muzz did not want to hear in this moment. This was the nightmare scenario.

“I… th-that is,” she stammered. “I’m, um…” She swallowed hard. Objectively, Muzz had no reason to be blushing- or even hesitating, really- but she was.

“I’m. Aro-ace.”

Crickets and garlic spirits chirped in the bushes nearby and a dragonfly hovered between the two.

Viv’s head tilted to the side. “Oh. … Cool!”

Muzz blinked.

“You’re like, the first aro-ace person I’ve met, I think.” She twirled her hair around her finger, pulling her glasses back over her eyes. It was hard to tell through her makeup, but she was blushing a little, too. “Um, sorry if that made you, like… uncomfortable.”

Muzz glanced up. Mimi, who had been circling overhead, was perched on the branch of a nearby maple. It had held its head high this whole day, but right now, it was cringing, feathers tight, leaned backward and tucking its chin down. It seemed to be trying to disappear.

A laugh huffed out of Muzz. It’s true- she definitely was a little uncomfortable, but she still said, “N-no, don’t worry about it.”

“It was still nice hanging out with you, though. Maybe we should be friends.”

“Y-yeah!” Muzz blurted, a lopsided smile spreading across her face. She tried hard not to sound desperate. Figure out how well she did. “Friends! Sounds great!”

For a moment, Vivi paused, sighing a contented sigh and looking up at the canopy, seemingly in thought. Then she said, “You know what, here.”

She reached into the pocket of her short white jacket and produced a small, carefully folded piece of paper. She held it out toward Muzz between two fingers.

“As a friend.”

Muzz took the paper from her and curiously unfolded it as Vivi walked back down the driveway toward the road, skirt swaying.

On the paper were ten digits and the letter _V._ It was a phone number that, confusingly, Vivi appeared to have already written down.

“Let’s spend some time together again soon, Muzz. … And don’t worry.” She grinned over her shoulder as Muzz looked back up. “I won’t try to date you!”

And off she went. As she walked down the road, there was a flash of light as Mimi dismounted the tree branch and went flying after her. It glided in wide circles around her as she vanished behind the trees.

Muzz stood in the front yard of her new home for a few minutes, staring around at the houses lining her new street. When she finally decided to move again, she’d find the key that’d been left for her under the welcome mat.

> I should sleep, I think. But I guess you and my body still think we’re not where we should be right now! I’ve checked every corner of this house, ordered takeout from a menu that Jack thankfully left behind, and set up about as much of our stuff as I could. If Danny didn’t scam me, the rest of our stuff should be shipping up here within the next few days, and I should PROBABLY be conscious to sign for all of it!
> 
> It’s funny, you know, Buddy. We crossed the country today. I blocked numbers. I burned bridges. I may have done the dumbest, most reckless thing ever. We can never go back home.
> 
> But I just have this feeling…
> 
> … I just feel like if I figure this out, Castwell probably isn’t gonna be a bad town to be stuck in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading this chapter about muzz allium having EXTREMELY NORMAL interactions with an E X T R E M E L Y NORMAL person. it probably doesn't come across, but some of vivi's mannerisms (minus the valley girl energy of course) were inspired by lalo from better call saul. well, in his more cheerful moments, that is.


End file.
